Before I dive into Home Alone's excellent debut release, please take a moment to appreciate the fact that he named it Teddybears & Weed, and how absolutely amazing of a title that is. Did you do it? Good.
Home Alone is the musical project of one Tom Mazurkiewicz, who makes utterly gorgeous, dreary bedroom dream-pop. What allows Home Alone's debut to stand out above the usual genericism of the hundreds of other bedroom pop composers is two key aspects. First, the lovely production, which is decidedly lo-fi but in the gooey, inviting dimension that has begun to emerge with the tag, which immediately lulls the listener into the songs' worlds. And the songs themselves, which show Mazurkiewicz's willingness to jump between the different boundaries that dream-pop encompasses, producing hazy guitar pop a la Atlas Sound on "Wishful Sinking", tinkering, blurry guitar-drone filled beats like Guilty Ghost on opener "Keep Breathing" or "No One's Awake", or even reduced lo-fi pop like Dead Gaze on "Teenage Tide".
There's a slight weirdness on Teddybears & Weed that seems to come part and parcel with bedroom pop (and would you expect otherwise from someone who would name their release Teddy Bears & Weed), but it never detours from the music, instead feeling more like infusion of Mazurkiewicz's personality straight into the music , like on the Antlers-informed-by-rap title track or the weirdo sound sample/collage "Stuck" that ends the tape. They not only work in the context of the tape, but are above else good songs that regardless. Teddybears & Weed is a wonderful slice of bedroom dream-pop bliss, a great opening salvo, and deserves props just because Home Alone do an awesome cover of Modest Mouse's "Sleepwalking".
Links:
Home Alone's Tumblr
Get the Teddybears & Weed cassette here soon, from Orchid Tapes
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